Two major provincial party leaders have promised to transfer responsibility for Ottawa’s light rail system to Metrolinx if elected, but some experts in Toronto are warning that they’ve been trying to claw back authority from that same agency.
Metrolinx is the provincial agency responsible for building and maintaining certain public transit projects in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Coun. Mike Colle, who represents Toronto’s Eglinton-Lawrence ward, says giving that power to Metrolinx was “the worst thing we ever did.”
He warned the capital could lose oversight over the LRT if Doug Ford or Bonnie Crombie fulfil their campaign vows to “upload” the project to the province.
“You’re basically giving it away to private contractors that don’t have to answer to the people of Ottawa. They don’t answer to anybody.”
Metrolinx is “totally unaccountable” for its projects in Toronto, Colle claimed.
But Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is a supporter of Metrolinx “uploading” the LRT, arguing it would free up enough funds to assure a future for Ottawa’s transit system.
Metrolinx ‘doesn’t inspire confidence’
Ottawa recently reopened its expanded second LRT line after more than four years of construction and delays.
Sutcliffe said that according to his understanding of the campaign promises, Ottawa would continue running and paying operating costs for the train service, while the province would build and maintain it.
While Ottawa has paid the LRT’s construction costs so far, Sutcliffe contrasted this with Toronto receiving provincial funding for Metrolinx to build four major lines in the GTA: Eglinton Crosstown LRT, Hazel McCallion Line LRT, Finch West LRT, and the Ontario Line.
But of the four he referenced, none are fully open.
Coun. Colle told CBC he struggled to get basic information about the progress of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, which will run in his ward and has been under construction since 2011.
He said Metrolinx’s work is done mainly by private contractors and offshore consultants, who receive provincial money through the agency but don’t hold public meetings or “reveal any information [about] why they can’t make the thing run.”
Shelagh Pizey-Allen, the executive director for transit advocacy group TTCriders, also said Metrolinx lacks transparency by not providing answers about millions of dollars in payouts to the private companies building the lines.
“The way that Metrolinx has been dealing with construction doesn’t inspire confidence,” she said.
10:18Metrolinx operates in the GTA. What would it mean for LRT in Ottawa to be a part of the agency?
Metrolinx operates in the GTA. What would it mean for LRT in Ottawa to be a part of the agency? We speak with a York University expert on public transport governance
What it means for Ottawa
Sutcliffe told CBC that Metrolinx’s track record in the GTA wasn’t a deterrent.
“There are delays and cost overruns with every major infrastructure project in the world, that’s not unusual,” he said.
“The team at the province has much more experience, expertise, scope, heft and and capacity to handle the construction and expansion and negotiations.”
Since September, he has been calling on the provincial and federal government to help Ottawa balance its budget, particularly the cost of OC Transpo.
Ottawa Morning13:18Could Ottawa be saying goodbye to LRT costs?
Yesterday two provincial election leaders pledged to upload Ottawa’s LRT costs to the province. More on that development and what it would mean for the city’s budget deficit when Mayor Mark Sutcliffe joins host Rebecca Zandbergen.
Uploading the LRT to the province would allow “OC Transpo to focus on what it does best, which is running a public transit system,” Sutcliffe said.
But Coun. Colle said the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) effectively has “zero” control over its own operations, because of how much it is affected by Metrolinx’s work.
“And God help you, if they continue [to be] as incompetent as they’ve been here, imagine what they’ll do with the Ottawa Line,” he said. “You think this is going to bail you out, you got to look for another approach.”
Local transit workers have been watching Toronto from afar, said Noah Vineberg, president of the local branch of the Amalgamated Transit Union representing OC Transpo workers, and they haven’t liked what they’ve seen.
Though Ottawa’s LRT is run by the Rideau Transit Group, a consortium not unlike Metrolinx, much work has been done to improve the system in Ottawa, Vineberg said. “Is a reset necessarily the right move? No, I don’t think so.”
Pizey-Allen said the widespread problems with Metrolinx are why TTCriders is pushing for the TTC to be put back in charge in Toronto, because “the TTC is accountable to Toronto. It has elected city councillors that sit on its board.”
“What we’re calling for is a restoration of provincial funding for all municipal transit agencies in Ontario,” she said. “The provincial government used to provide a 50 per cent of the operating subsidy for local transit.”
That’s the plan which Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles is pitching, while her counterparts for the Progressive Conservatives and Ontario Liberals offer to give responsibility to Metrolinx.
None of the parties provided a timeline for their plan. CBC reached out to Metrolinx about the party leaders’ promises and about the concern over its work in Toronto, and a spokesperson said the company was “not able to comment on commitments made during an election campaign.”
#Ottawa #lose #oversight #LRT #Metrolinx #Toronto #councillor #warns
Leave a Reply